Explosion
by TheWeatherOutside
Summary: When a rescue in a chemical factory takes a turn for the worse, Gordon must wait for his brothers to get him out before the whole building collapses on him. (Day 2 of Whumptober 2019 - Explosion)


"I don't see anyone else in here, John. I'm gonna head back out."

"FAB, Gordon. Be quick."

"You don't need to tell me twice."

They had been called out to a rescue; some chemical factory that had caught on fire that was quickly spreading throughout the facility. Firefighters had seen to the initial call but had quickly needed International Rescue as the situation grew more dire.

The factory contained some pretty explosive chemicals, and it didn't take a genius to know what would happen if the flames reached them.

Gordon, Virgil, Scott and Alan had all headed out to the scene to help with the evacuation of the workers, and to try and prevent the fire from spreading any further. So far, it had gone without a hitch. They were pretty sure that they had evacuated all the workers in the factory, but the fire had messed with their equipment and they were having a hard time with reading the life signs in the facility. So, they had pretty much been working blind. They had a rough number of how many workers had been in the factory at the time that the fire started, but there were too many to count them all in time. Plus, there was the chance that the number wasn't accurate, so they had all headed back in to do one final sweep of the facility.

Gordon had somehow ended up in the section that was closest to the chemicals, and so he had tried to be quick, yet thorough, in seeing if there were any stragglers that they had left behind.

"Gordon, you should hurry." John's voice came through his comm as Gordon turned to head back outside. "The firefighters only managed to slow down that fire a bit. It's quickly growing and getting very close to where you are."

"FAB."

He only had a few more corridors to get through and then he would be out. He quickened his pace, and only had to round a couple more corners when suddenly he was met with a loud _bang_ and he was hit with a force that threw him through the air.

He felt himself smack into something hard, and then there was nothing.

* * *

The first thing that Gordon noticed when he woke up was the ringing in his ears. The second thing he noticed was the pain that filled his body. As the foggy daze cleared from his mind, Gordon slowly remembered what had happened.

The factory. The fire. The explosion.

Gordon opened his groggy eyes to take in his surroundings, but all he could make out through the haze was the dust that flitted through the air.

"-don…G…n. Gordon!"

The ringing in his ears quietened down and Gordon could finally make out John's voice drifting through his comm.

"-ohn," Gordon tried, but his mouth felt like it was filled with fluff.

"Gordon! Oh, thank god! Are you okay?"

"John…I…" Gordon got out a little more that time, but he was still finding it hard to get out the words. John seemed to sense that something was wrong, though, as his voice grew concerned, but comforting.

"Don't worry. The others are on their way, they just need to find to a way to get to you. The entrance to you has collapsed."

"Wha-" Gordon was really getting annoyed at his lack of being about to form actual words.

"Don't move." This time, John's words were accompanied by his small hologram appearing from where Gordon's wrist with its holographic display laid close to Gordon's head. "Just stay still."

Gordon just tried to lie there for a moment as he waited for his mind to wake up a bit more. Some of the dust had settled onto the glass of his helmet, but it had cleared enough in the air for him to see a bit more clearly.

He had woken up on his front, so his face was turned to the side and he was forced to stare only at what was in front of him. From what he could see, it seemed that he was in a different room to the corridor that he had been walking down. He could also see that there was a sizeable hole in the wall that he was facing, and through his foggy mind he managed to piece together that the blast must have sent him through the wall and into the next room.

"Gordon?" John broke the silence to draw Gordon's attention back to him. Gordon tried to focus on his small holographic form, but no matter how hard he tried, he was still a little blurry.

"Hmm?" Was Gordon's reply. He didn't feel up to talking at all, but he at least wanted John to know that he had heard his question, otherwise he would just worry more.

"What hurts?"

"Ev'rything," Gordon mumbled.

"Gordon." It was only one word, but the way that John said it spoke volumes. It said that he didn't appreciate Gordon's vague answer, and he wanted him to answer again, specifically this time.

Gordon closed his eyes so he could concentrate on how his body felt. After a moment, the pain seemed to spike in some areas and dull in others, and he had more of an idea of where his injuries might lay.

"Head. Chest. Legs." He got out between breaths.

Gordon thought he saw John frown, but he wasn't too sure of anything anymore. John began to say something, but Gordon quickly realised that he wasn't talking to him. Was probably talking to one of his brothers about the situation. Gordon just tuned him out, didn't think he had the energy to listen in anyways.

Something past John caught his eye, a light of some sort. Gordon focused on it and realised that what he saw was fire in the distance, creeping closer.

"Fire…"

"What was that, Gordon?" John's attention was back on him.

"Fire." He tried again.

"Yeah, there was a fire in the factory. The firefighters are working on it, though. We're just concentrating on getting you out-"

"No..." John wasn't getting it, so Gordon slowly lifted his arm to point in the direction that he was looking, lifting John up with it too. John seemed to understand what he was getting at, and his avatar spun around to face in that direction. "Ov'r there."

John didn't say anything as he noticed the fire getting steadily closer. He just turned away like he was looking at a different screen, that frown still on his face.

Gordon put his arm back down and stared at the flames in the distance. They were coming from another room and were far enough away that they didn't affect Gordon just yet. He couldn't even feel the heat of it yet, but it wouldn't take long for them to reach Gordon's room. Why was a factory that stored explosive chemicals so flammable?

He stared at the fire for longer than he probably should have, but there was something about the dancing flames that spoke to his tired mind. Hypnotising and transfixing him into some sense of serenity.

Gordon wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep or not. He probably hadn't, because if he had John would have tried to keep him awake for as long as possible, and it's not like John would have taken an eye off him long enough for him to drift off. However, if felt like he had just been woken up from a long, deep sleep when he heard voices cut into his quiet space again.

He opened his eyes and found that in the time he was out, whether he had been asleep or not, the room he was in had begun to fill up with smoke. He could still see around the room fairly clearly, but past the hole in the wall, it was a smoky blur. Gordon took a deep breath, or at least tried to with how much his chest hurt, and as he shakily sucked in the clean air, he was thankful that his rebreather hadn't been damaged in the blast.

John was talking to the others again, and this time Gordon tried to concentrate on what was being said.

"Is there not any other way you can get to him?"

"Negative, John. That whole section of the factory has collapsed around him. It would take us just as long to come at it from another side. I'm just thankful that the one bit he's in is still standing."

Scott. It brought Gordon another form of comfort to hear his brother's voice, to know that he was doing everything he could to get to him.

"Even then, I don't know how long it will stay like that. Be as quick as you can."

"FAB."

It was clear that Gordon wasn't supposed to hear that. He probably had been asleep, or at the very least they thought that he was. But he had heard it, and now that was all he could think of.

"Hav'ta…get up," he slurred as he positioned his hands next to his head and steeled himself to push up on them.

"Gordon?"

Yeah, John really hadn't expected Gordon to be awake.

"Need to…get out."

"No, Gordon." John voice grew urgent as he understood what Gordon meant. "You need to stay still. Scott and Virgil have almost found a way in. You just need to wait a little longer."

Gordon ignored him as he concentrated on lifting himself up off the floor. He pushed up on his hands, and it was like he had been lying there for days with how much they ached as they took on his weight. He sucked in a breath as a pain flared up in his chest at the movement, but he just ignored it in favour of sitting up.

Once he was sitting, he took in the deepest breath he had managed since he had first woken up. It had been hard to breathe when lying on his chest with possible broken ribs, so it felt good to clear his mind slightly with a bit more air to his lungs, even if it still sent a small spike of pain through him.

Now that Gordon was in a better position, he looked himself over for any obvious injuries, and he cast his gaze down towards where there was still a pain coming from his leg.

"Woah. Tha's a lotta blood."

"Gordon?" John sounded very concerned, and Gordon felt bad. He didn't mean to make him worry any more, he just wanted to help them out by getting closer to them. But now he was staring at his leg that was coated in blood and was still steadily bleeding from a cut in his thigh.

"I'm fine." He lied. He didn't want to, but he also didn't want to upset them any more than he already had. "Jus' gotta get up."

"Gordon." Scott's stern voice came through his comm, and a moment later his hologram joined John's. He must have either been listening in, or John had told on him. The traitor. "Don't move. We're almost there."

"Don't sweat it, Scotty. I'm coming to ya."

And then he was switching off his comm, or at least the visual part of it. They could still hear each other, but he didn't want their judging, little faces watching him.

He closed his eyes and took in another deep breath, and then he was pushing himself off the floor.

Perhaps closing his eyes wasn't the best idea, because as soon as he was up, a wave of nausea flooded over him and he stumbled into the closest piece of furniture that was still standing. He leant against whatever it was as he waited for the room to stop spinning. He really didn't want to throw up in his helmet.

A few moments passed, and he felt better enough to open his eyes again. He tried to look around the room, but it had filled up with too much smoke for him to tell where he was. He could still see the hole that he had been blasted through, though, and he made his way towards there.

It was slow work on only one leg that wanted to work, but he somehow managed to stumble his way there, leaning on as much as he could along the way.

He stepped through the hole, and realised he had no idea where he needed to go. Through the smoke, he could make out that across from him, on the other side of the corridor, there was another, even bigger hole in the wall. Past the hole, Gordon could see that the room beyond had succumbed to the fire. The room was quite big, but the fire was spreading quickly through it and towards where Gordon stood.

The room was a wreck. Any part of it that wasn't burnt up already was at least shredded into pieces. Gordon gathered that the explosion must have come from this room, or another room beyond it, if the explosion had been big enough. It had probably gone through the wall, into the corridor that Gordon had been hurrying through, and then gone further into the room that Gordon had been sent into where it finally stopped. Gordon took a quick moment to be thankful that if he had to be in the blast zone, he was happy that he at least hadn't been in this room.

Gordon stood there in the corridor and tried to remember which way he had come from, but he could already feel the heat from the fire. So, he didn't waste any more time, and started to stumble his way down the corridor to his right, hoping that it was the way to the exit and his brothers.

It was slow going, but he eventually rounded a corner that he was sure was where the exit was. Or, where the exit _should_ have been. What laid before him was a wall of debris and rubble blocking his way.

It should have made Gordon feel defeated, or hopeless, but it actually made Gordon feel the complete opposite. Although the wall in front of him seemed thick, from beyond it he could hear the tell-tale sounds of someone trying to break through. Rumbles of tools that were drilling through the debris, and through to their brother.

Gordon leant up against the wall of the corridor, a bit of a distance away from the collapsed entrance. He didn't want his brothers to drill too far and into him, after all. He slowly slid down it to sit on the floor as he waited for them to reach him.

The short walk over to here had taken what little strength he still had in him, and he felt his eyes begin to slip shut.

"I'mma jus'…lay here," he said to no one in particular. He wasn't sure if John was still listening in to him, he most likely was, but Gordon hadn't heard a word from him since he left the room. He had probably been talking to him, and Gordon had just ignored it, but could you blame him? It took all he had just to walk, let alone listen as well.

It didn't matter if anyone had been listening anyways, as when his eyes began to slip shut, he was met with light shining through the smoke as debris was quickly moved from the pile, the midday sun casting into the dark hallway.

A small smile appeared on Gordon's face as he succumbed to the sleep that was pulling his body down. His brothers had arrived.

* * *

Gordon woke up feeling much more comfortable than he had before, so he was sure that wherever he was, he was no longer in that factory. What he was lying on was soft and smooth, and he almost wanted to fall straight back to sleep he felt so relaxed, but there was a weight on his hand, and he was pretty sure he knew what, or rather who, it was. He owed it to them to show them that he was awake.

He slowly opened his eyes and had to blink a few times to ensure that he didn't close them again and fall straight back to sleep.

He quickly realised that he was in the island's infirmary. The room was dim, and although the blinds were shut, Gordon could guess that it was probably the evening. There was a small light coming from the side of his bed, and he turned his head to find John sitting in a seat next to his bed. He hadn't seemed to notice that Gordon was awake yet, as he read a book that he held with one hand and held Gordon's hand on the bed with his other.

"Hey," Gordon tried to say, but it came out more like a croak. Although, it was enough to make John snap his attention towards him.

"Hi." John put his book down on the small table next to his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Gordon could have probably been more specific, but it was the only answer that he could think of right now. He did feel much better than when he had last spoken to John. "What're you doing 'ere"?

"What, do you not like me being here?" John joked with a smile. Gordon tried to laugh, but it probably just came out as a huff of breath. "I came down to see if you were okay, and to tell you that you probably did the right thing."

Gordon was pretty sure that he didn't just hear what he thought he had. John never admitted being wrong, but that was fair, seeing as he never was wrong.

"What?"

John looked away from him to instead watch their hands from where they were entwined. "Not that you _should_ move when you're possibly _very_ injured, Gordon." He shot a quick, stern gaze to Gordon before he looked away again. "But in this case, it was probably for the best. The others got to you just in time. As soon as you all left the building, the whole section that you had been in collapsed. If you didn't move closer to the exit, then they may not have gotten to you and all gotten out in time. Plus, you somehow didn't manage to injure yourself any further."

"Aww, Johnny. Are you actually admitting you were wrong?"

"No. Okay, maybe, but just this once. Next time, stay still when I tell you to."

"Sure, yeah. I will." Gordon felt his eyes begin to drift shut again. "I'll do whatever you say."

"Sure you will," John said sarcastically.

Gordon chuckled as he let his eyes close and he got himself comfortable again in the bed.

"I promise."

Gordon could hear John pick his book up again and shuffle in his seat as he got comfortable too.

"Yeah, I know."

John gave his hand a light squeeze, and the last thing Gordon heard before he fell back to sleep was John as he wished him a goodnight.


End file.
